Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Hidden Room

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

The search that day truly went favorably.

Any user of the axe, “Agni Blaze,” will be burned by it, so we left it at the house. I would like to quickly find a way to deal with it, and put it to practical use.

Outside the city, our legs carried us about 30 minutes out to have Yig fly us up to the 812th floor.

And then we used the golem creation spell I learned from the guild to blast our way up to the 921st floor.

After dashing through about 100 floors in roughly 3 hours, we once again returned to the front lines. Of course we ran into monsters along the way a bunch of times, but uhh…

“Jumping out in front of a golem running at more than 40 kilometers per hour is just… Stupid.”

I saw a poison mold… In other words a gigantic moving mold, jump out in front of the steel-made golem, only to be splattered everywhere, and muttered that.

They’re practically the weakest kind of monster on this layer, but they don’t feel pain, they’re poisonous, and they won’t stop moving unless you cut deep enough, making them fairly difficult to deal with.

Normally we would fry them with magic or mince them up, but right now they were being smashed to pieces by the impact of colliding with the golem.

Combined with our weight in the riding area, it was probably a pretty heavy crash.

With those things happening along the way, we returned to the front lines just past noon.

First I sent the special-made, [Toughness] applied carriage back to the basement, and maintained the golem as is.

Being tough and solid, the golem is useful as a reserve on the vanguard, and the amount of magic put into its creation will last it for a whole day.

By the way, its design is based on the White Devil of the Federation… Err, actually no, I went in the “That’s the Gogg for ya. Didn’t do a thing!” direction.

I couldn’t make the finer details, so I was crying a lot about that.

“Let’s make clearing this layer our goal for today. Marle, head to the back right away if you notice anything, like usual.”

“Right.”

Marle’s role in searching for enemies and traps requires that she be in a dangerous position at the very front.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The golem is also perfect for the role as her guard.

Our front-liners are the golem, Marle, and Alec. Behind them are me and Marielle. And at the end of the line are Miss Levy and Haster, in the all-purpose positions.

After setting up our formation I search our surroundings with [Sonar]… Oh?

“Haster, the floor about 50 meters ahead of us looks like it’s going to cave in.”

“A pitfall from the get-go, huh. Sure are a lot of traps past the 900th floor.”

“No, actually it’s strange that it hasn’t opened up yet, isn’t it?”

It was unnatural that a trap placed in such a blatant position near the stairs wouldn’t have been activated by the Demon Lord party ahead of us.

“Did they manage to avoid it…?”

Traces of traps set up like this being activated and crushed were all over the place.

So it was discomforting that this one was still live.

We moved up to the trap, where Marle and Miss Levy investigated the pitfall’s surroundings just in case.

“Well ain’t this odd?”

“It is strange.”

“What is?”

I couldn’t wait any longer as they puzzled over it, and asked.

While they were investigating I activated [Sonar] again to check for enemies. Neither [Olfactory Enhancement], nor [Sonar] reacted to anything.

“I don’t think this is a pitfall?”

“Sure ain’t. Definitely hollow below it, but there ain’t nothin’ built to open the floor up… Actually, the pitfall’s all locked tight.”

“Is there some roundabout path that will get us down there?”

“Well there’s some chance o’ that, but… That were the case, then there wouldn’t be much point for the pitfall to be here.”

“The trap itself is there?”

“Nothin’ to activate it, but it’s there all right.”

This really is strange, isn’t it?

There’s a trap door here, but it’s not functional.

Since it’s not functional, the Demon Lord’s group probably passed through without activating it, but…

“What if the Demon Lord’s group disabled it…?”

“Couldn’t be. Ain’t no traces o’ that kinda work around the trap.”

“Actually… Might this be a hidden room?”

Hum? Normally hidden rooms would be in the walls to the left or right, and yet… I see, so they can be under the ground too.

“Then how about we activate the trap and take a peek down below?”

“Should be fine as long as we don’t fall.”

“Roger that. I’ll have this done in a jiffy..”

Dismantling traps is Miss Levy’s area of expertise.

She found the tiny grooves in the floor, blew away the dust, and shortly after inserting a tool in that groove…

Kachink! With a surprisingly heavy sound, the trap door was functioning.

“Alrighty, the fastener holdin’ the trap door in place has been removed.”

“We want to open it up; how should we do that?”

“Well it’ll open up if ya get on top of it, right?”

“Yeah, and fall in?!”

W-well… She does tend to be pretty sloppy.

“Guess I’ll have to handle this. We still need Yuuri’s golem, so I’ll make something small and have it go on there I suppose.”

“All yours, Haster.”

This party has four people who can use magic.

Which means, if the situation called for it, we could create a lineup of four golems to handle the front lines.

Of course, with the overflowing magic power I have, I could easily create ten of them. But, being incapable of autonomous movement, ordering golems around is extremely difficult.

Putting it in more concrete terms, they can’t read the situation.

If I order two golems “Protect Marle,” then they would both go and protect her.

There was one time when there were two out, and I ordered “Put Marle on your shoulder.” That started a competition between the two, with Marle becoming a “judge” of sorts.

At that time she screamed, “Fumimya?!”—which was a charming sound as a woman, but seemed like a sound humans aren’t supposed to make—as her shoulders were dislocated.

Moreover I was seriously wrung out by Alec and Haster after that.

In Haster’s case I mean that in a moisture sense.

With my eyes looking dead as I recalled being tortured until I was dripping in bodily fluids in the past, he completed the golem.

Made from tree branches, it’s the lightest and weakest type of golem. If we’re just disposing of it, then it’s good enough.

“Alright, I’m sending it over; everyone step back a bit.”

We all back away to keep from being caught up in it, and the small golem got on the trap door.

The pitfall flung open, the golem dropped, and it hit the floor before scattering to pieces.

Peeking inside, I guess the hole goes down about 10 meters?

In there was also what appeared to be a side tunnel, so it seems we were right in thinking this was a hidden room.

“Is this where the ceiling of the floor below us got lower?”

“Floor 920 undulated all over between high and low, so it probably is.”

It doesn’t look like there’s any spike traps or anything installed on the floor.

Just in case, I used [Sonar] to try searching the floor, but there was no trap-like response.

“There appear to be no traps. Shall we try going down?”

“Yeah… I guess so…”

He’s probably worried about our distance from the Demon Lord.

We’ve passed floor 920 and are already in the last spurt. We’ll want to hurry forward as much as possible at this point, to close the gap.

However, we don’t have the means of dealing with him when we do catch up just yet.

“There could be a useful item in there, so we may as well go take a peek.”

With his judgment made, we began preparations for the descent.

If it’s only 10 meters, then the rope we have will be enough to get down, and Haster and I have flight magic.

First Haster used [Flight], held Marle, and dropped down to the floor…. Hrmm, aren’t his hands moving kind of lewdly?

When I gave voice to my concerns, he denied it in a hurry.

“Th-that’s not what it is, okay? She’s gotten heavier, so I was just getting a better hold…”

“I am not heavy, Mister Haster!”

“No, I don’t mean you’re fat or anything…”

“Marle, why might you have emphasized the “I” just then?! It sounds like you are trying to make suggestions about other people!”

“Cheatin’ ain’t nooo good.”

Miss Levy happily jumped in to stir things up. Alec glared.

Well, since he “held” another woman, I’ll give him plenty of punishment at night. He can stroke me all over as much as he likes.

Once we relieved the tension for a moment, the basement(?) search began.

The rope wouldn’t support the golem, so it was left in the upper floor.

Further in the side tunnel of the basement was a door, and beyond that appeared to be a large hollow.

“Sure ‘nough, it’s a hidden room.”

“Yuuri, what’s [Sonar] telling you?”

“I’m not sure in any detail, but it looks like there’s an over 10 meter hollow area. [Olfactory Enhancement] isn’t picking up anything alive either.”

“There don’t appear to be any traps, and it’s not locked.”

“Alec, get ready for battle just in case?”

“Got it.”

Haster and Miss Levy moved to the front, and Marle took care of opening the door in front of them.

There was no light in the room, giving us no visibility, so when we sent a [Light Ball] forward, it revealed to us a round hall with 10 meters in each direction.

Two suits of armor stood in the center of the room, with a pedestal set between them. Placed on the pedestal was a solitary mask.

The mask’s design is a… Hannya?

Anyway, we didn’t get any closer to the armors, and first used [Sonar] to check for traps.

“No traps in the room. However, there’s a strong magic reaction in the center.”

“I feel it too.”

“I can’t feel it though?”

“Me either.”

“Leaving aside the magically dry couple over there… Those armors are clearly a trap.”

I used “Appraisal” in front of me to get a judgment on the armor.

It showed they were High Enchant Living Mail. The enhanced version of living mail.

And the mask in the middle is called “Devil’s Wailing Mask,” a seemingly half-cursed item.

“The armors are high enchant living mail. They’re stronger living mail, so they’ll be pretty tough. The mask is called “Devil’s Wailing Mask”. It can’t be taken off, but at the same time it grants its wearer powerful regenerative abilities.”

“Then it’s a cursed item.”

“What’s a little curse like that to me? I could dispel it easily enough.”

“You sure are convenient, sis.”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m an item!”

“Now then, what to do…”

If we get close, then the armors will start moving. I could tell that from “Appraisal” too.

“Can’t we just ignore an item like that?”

“We’re fine, but for those of us without “Immortality,” that ‘strong regeneration’ ability would be valuable.”

“But come on, don’t we have Marielle with us?”

“HOOOHOHOHO! Feel free to rely on me more, yes?”

“Mary, keep quiet.”

“Yes, of course.”

Marle easily calmed Marielle out of her ecstatic mode.

She’s practically a Marielle tamer at this point.

Come to think of it, Alec’s been disciplined too…

“And what do we do if Marielle gets injured? If she takes an injury severe enough that she can’t get to us anymore, this mask will come in handy.”

“That’s… True.”

Assuring the healer’s survival has to be the highest priority problem to take care of within the labyrinth.

“If it’ll be useful for Marielle, then let’s hurry and go grab it!”

“You know how strong those living mail are? They’re several steps up from the one the Demon Lord brought with him.”

“Then they’ll be a perfect test for us.”

“That’s a good point… It’s been five years since then. How about we check just how much stronger we’ve gotten.”

They’re talking about measuring their strength, and yet… If I’m not mistaken, that living mail was taken out by one swing of Cleaver?

We still don’t know exactly how strong that original comparison target is though.

Well, I fully support the goal of securing Marielle’s safety anyway…

I guess… I could take one down!